Blues coach 'Hitch' gets contract extension

The St. Louis Blues have given head coach Ken Hitchcock a one-year contract extension. Hitchcock was this year's recipient of the Jack Adams Award as the best head coach.

(UPI/Bill Greenblatt)

The man who led the St. Louis Blues to one of the best seasons in franchise history this year will be behind the bench until 2014.

The team announced today that Ken Hitchcock has signed a one-year contract extension, with an option for the 2014-2015 season. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Blues were hovering around the .500 mark when Hitchcock took over after Davis Payne was fired in November. The team lost just eight more games the rest of the season, and ended the season with 43 wins and 109 points, second-most in team history. The Blues also won their first playoff series since 2002, and the success earned Hitchcock the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach.

"Ken came in and immediately steadied our group and was able to get each one of our players to elevate their game," general manager Doug Armstrong said.

Hitchcock says he's not satisfied though, and says he believes the team has "great things to come."

And he wants to stick around, even if it's not in a head-coaching role.

"This is it for me. This is my last stop," Hitchcock said. "I want this to be a successful franchise for the next 10 or 15 years. We're going to have ups and downs, we're going to have good times and bad times, but to me, I really trust the people in management, scouting and everything here. There's a great working relationship with the coaching staff, which for me is very unique in sports. It feels like it did way back in Dallas and that's why I want to stick around."

Hitchcock was the head coach when the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999.

Jamie Langenbrunner and David Perron scored two goals in 45 seconds, and Andy McDonald added an empty-net insurance tally late in the third period as the St. Louis Blues won their first playoff series in a decade, beating the San Jose Sharks 3-1 in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Scottrade Center.

A former college hockey player who says he's been a Blues fan since moving to St. Louis 20 years ago is the new lead owner of the franchise.

The St. Louis Blues officially unveiled Tom Stillman, the chairman and CEO of Summit Distributors, on Thursday. The National Hockey League approved the sale on Tuesday, and the deal closed on Wednesday.